A/N: Again, thank you for all the nice comments! Oishi and Fuji show up in this chapter. There's not much Oishi/Eiji fluff, I'm afraid. Most of that's in chapter four. This chapter is mainly setting it up so that the Golden Pair can have some alone time together. ;

Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Eiji-angst
Pairings: Eventual Golden Pair, possible MomoRyo, InuKai, and TezFuji.

Shattered Reality
Chapter Three
By Abyssinian003

"Oishi, have you talked to Eiji today? He's not here, and he usually calls me if he knows he can't make it to school," Fuji Shuusuke asked the vice-captain of Seigaku's tennis team. Oishi frowned; that was rather unusual. "No, I haven't heard from him today, but I turned off my phone earlier so it wouldn't ring in class. I'll check it, if you want."

Fuji opened his eyes, any traces of a former smile dropping from his lips, "Would you? I've had this strange feeling all day. I'm worried that something happened to him."

Seeing that the tensai was serious, Oishi quickly retrieved his phone from his pocket. In his haste, he nearly dropped the device before he managed to turn it on. The welcome screen flashed once before letting him know that he had one voice message and one text message.

Anxiousness assaulted him as he listened to the voice message.

"Oishi-kun, this is Eiji's mother. Have you seen my son at all this morning? The school called to let me know that he was not there, and I thought he had just left early. I'm rather worried about him at the moment. Please call me to let me know if you see him."

He must have paled or something of the sort because Fuji was asking him if he was okay. Oishi took a shaky breath and slowly dialed the Kikumaru family's phone number, pretty much ignoring Fuji in the process. After a few rings, Eiji's mother answered and asked who was calling.

"Hello, Kikumaru-san. This is Oishi Shuichirou. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't seen Eiji today. Is there some reason you're looking for him?" Oishi waited patiently for her answer, but he was immediately worried when he heard what sounded like a stifled sob from the other line.

"Kikumaru-san? Are you all right? Did… something happen?" She quickly assured him that it was nothing, and that, if he should find Eiji, she would greatly appreciate it if he would call her. Then she hung up, leaving Oishi with many unanswered questions.

He shared a startled look with Fuji, who had apparently heard most of the conversation. "Oishi, did I understand that correctly? Kikumaru-san can't find Eiji?" Oishi nodded, stunned at the horrid information.

Dazedly, the dark-haired boy decided to check his text message. It most likely wasn't from Eiji. The redhead liked to actually speak to him instead of typing messages out. He allowed his green eyes to register the number of origin, and his features took on a look of puzzlement. Why would Echizen of all people text him?

Found Kikumaru-senpai.

He let out a breath of relief before reading the next line.

He's sick.

His breath caught in his throat, and, shaking, he scrolled down to the next line.

Come help.

Echizen had been kind enough to give directions, even if they were vague and heavily abbreviated. Oishi now had a dilemma: should he wait until school is out, or should he go find Echizen and Eiji right now? His mind was made up before he even stood from the ground. Without thinking, Oishi grabbed Fuji's wrist and started pulling him away from the school, "Come on!"

"Where are we going?" Any remnants of Fuji's mask from earlier in the day had completely disappeared. His sapphire eyes watched Oishi's tense form before he said, "I see. That text message said something about Eiji, right?"

Oishi nodded stiffly as he tried to remember the highly abbreviated (read: heavily slaughtered) directions Ryoma had given at the end of the message. They were in an alley, apparently, and very close to the storage bin that he and Eiji usually lounged around on, if he correctly understood the area Echizen was speaking of.

Fuji had tugged his arm away a few minutes before they came to what Oishi had thought was the right place. The honey-haired teen looked around for any sign of Eiji or Ryoma, as did Oishi, but to the disappointment of the duo, neither saw anything relating to their two teammates.

"Oishi-senpai! Fuji-senpai!" Both jumped as Ryoma's voice reached them. They glanced about and noticed him quite a ways from where they were searching. Fuji frowned at Oishi, but in his defense, Oishi stated that Ryoma's directions were vague and that he would let Fuji read them later, if he wanted.

"Ochibi! Why did you call them?" Eiji's angered shout surprised both tennis players as they made their way over to their teammates. Ryoma shrugged and cast a sideways glance at the irate redhead, "What else was I supposed to do? They would have killed me if I'd left you here by yourself, and I didn't call either of them, for the record. My phone didn't have enough power for that."

The youngest Seigaku regular tugged his cap down over his eyes as if to hid from Eiji's sudden glare. Eiji was livid; Ryoma promptly confirmed his theory that even peaceful redheads had that stereotypical temper somewhere in them. "I told you I didn't want to worry anyone!"

"It's a little late for that, Eiji. Your mother's already called me to ask if I'd seen you. Do you mind telling me why?"

Both Ryoma and Eiji went silent at the question. They shared a look, and the red-haired acrobat paled, clutching at the wall beside him once again. Startled, Ryoma reached out to steady him, "Kikumaru-senpai!"

"Hoi, the world's spinning again, Ochibi."

Oishi—with a shout of, "Eiji!"—and Fuji were instantly at the redhead's side, keeping him from falling. Fuji brushed a sweat-dampened strand of hair from Eiji's forehead and frowned when he noticed his friend's fever. Oishi also noticed the heat and suggested, "Come on, Eiji. Just lean on us. We'll take you home, okay?"

Neither of them had expected Eiji to react so violently to the plan. He shook his head violently, tossing his crimson hair about his head. "Nya! No! No way! I'm not going back!"

Oishi froze, gasping, when he noticed a dark patch on Eiji's cheek. At first he thought it was just a shadow, but then Eiji stopped shaking his head, apparently feeling woozy. Fuji also noticed, and a strange, frightening glint entered his open, steel blue eyes.

The calmer half of the Golden Pair reached out and hesitantly brushed his fingers against the too-dark bruise on his partner's cheek. Eiji immediately whimpered in pain and tried to pull away from him. Oishi drew back his hand as if he had been burned, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! Eiji, how did this happen? Who did this?"

The red-haired teen shook his head once before burying his face into his partner's shoulder. Oishi embraced him tightly and let his friend—though Ryoma had always had a suspicion that there was more going on between them—cry into his shirt. The vice-captain of the Seigaku tennis club seemed physically pained by Eiji's anguish.

Ryoma looked away, uncomfortable with the wrongness of the whole scenario (Kikumaru-senpai was almost always happy around him, after all), but to his credit, he said nothing. He belatedly noticed Fuji watching him suspiciously and knew that he would be interrogated by Fuji, Oishi, or both of them later. He glanced down at his watch; it was now 11:30 AM—so much for even attempting to go to school. Surely oyaji would understand, wouldn't he?

Fuji then asked the question that Kikumaru had efficiently dodged earlier, "Eiji, how long have you been out here?" The redhead stilled for a moment, as if to gather his bearings. He lifted his face just high enough from Oishi's shoulder to peek at Fuji.

"I left around eight o'clock last night."

Ryoma couldn't help the noise of disbelief that escaped him, "You aren't serious, are you? That would mean that you've been out here, sitting in the rain overnight, for over half a day now." He paused and glanced at the acrobat in incredulity, "Please tell me you haven't."

In response to his comment, Eiji hid his face against Oishi's shoulder again, shivering slightly. Oishi, who was obviously very upset by everything but was trying to be strong for his friend—Ryoma still thought the Golden Pair were more than that—breathed a quiet, "Eiji," as he held him tighter.

Picking up his bag, Ryoma turned to face Fuji, who had backed off from the pair some time ago, "I'm going to walk home and get oyaji to drive down here so you two don't have to help him walk back to my house. It's a fairly long walk. I don't think Kikumaru-senpai could make it in his condition."

"I'll go with you."

Ryoma suddenly wished he hadn't announced his plans as he dared to meet Fuji-senpai's icy gaze. Somehow, he knew the tensai's offer translated to, "I want to know what happened and who hurt my best friend, and you're going to tell me everything you know, aren't you?" Ryoma couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine as he and Fuji started on the long walk back to his house.

To be continued…

Glossary of Terms:
-senpai— upperclassman.
-san— term used to show respect for an elder.
Ochibi— I've seen it translated numerous ways. One such translation is "baby." ;
Hoi/Nya— nonsensical terms used by Eiji.
oyaji— I believe it roughly means "Old man." Ryoma calls Nanjirou that in the anime, if I heard it correctly. ;
tensai— Translates to "genius" or "prodigy."